With the goal of understanding and manipulating the behavior of cells
gone awry, many cancer researchers have turned to the gene-silencing technique
known as RNA interference with the hope of using the approach to effectively
mute the expression of genes that drive malignancies. Now, three new studies
in the June 9 issue of Nature point to naturally
occurring roles of interfering RNAs called microRNAs in cancer development,
findings that could one day lead to new diagnostics and therapies.